David Dastmalchian just happened to make his feature film debut in The Dark Knight, one of the most popular and successful movies of all time, and the actor still remembers how amazed he was the first time he saw director Christopher Nolan at work.
These days, Dastmalchian can be recognized from the various roles he’s played in a variety of films, but it all began with his memorable role as a villain in The Dark Knight. More recently, Dastmalchian reunited with Nolan with a role in the hit film Oppenheimer, marking a bit of a full-circle moment for the actor. In an interview conducted by /Film before the SAG-AFTRA strike, Dastmalchian shared his memories of working on The Dark Knight, which tied into how wonderful it was for him to get back onto a Nolan movie set once again.
“For me, the thing that stood out was getting the opportunity to observe one of the great masters of cinema, Christopher Nolan, be able to orchestrate a set with thousands of performers and hundreds if not thousands of crew members and extensive equipment setups under the incredible pressure of having to shoot in a downtown, thriving, operating metropolis like Chicago and make that Gotham City,” Dastmalchian said of The Dark Knight. “Seeing him do so with nothing but confidence and clarity and the skill of a great leader and communicator.”
On seeing Nolan at it again on the set of Oppenheimer, Dastmalchian continued, “That just affected me in this deep way, seeing an artist at that level operate in such a manner, and since then, has been the bellwether representation of the captains that I love to embark on journeys with, the people who I will follow into the craziest waters, the most unknown places, the most dark chasms to jump with leaps of faith because somebody just has that kind of discipline and heart for cinema. And I saw it again. I got to see it on the set of his newest film.”
In The Dark Knight, Dastmalchian plays Thomas Schiff, a man revealed to be a henchman for Heath Ledger’s Joker. For his Nolan reunion, Dastmalchian took on the role of real-life nuclear weapons advocate William L. Borden in Oppenheimer. The actor’s latest role sees him as one of the stars of the Dracula-inspired horror film, The Last Voyage of the Demeter.
Fans can catch Dastmalchian on the big screen by watching either Oppenheimer or The Last Voyage of the Demeter, as both movies are currently playing in theaters.
Source: /Film